4/5 stars.
ebook, 290 pages.
Read from May 8, 2018 to May 11, 2018.
Cat lovers, if you have not come across this author and her work, you need to. It is thanks to this book that I found my way out a very deep book-rut. I am sad to see this delightful story come to an end but I guess nothing good lasts forever. This book picks up exactly where the previous book, The Wildlings, left off so if you have not read the first book, stop right now and go and get your hands on a copy!
Set in the sprawling streets of India, you are reunited with the main characters, our felines friends, Mara, Southpaw, Katar, Hulo and Beraal.
The group is still recovering from their fight with the ferals and some drastic changes to their neighbourhood. Food is becoming scarce and the group is starving. Mara, still living with her ‘bigfeet’ (humans) is blissfully unaware of the group’s situation and has not stepped up to be their sender out fear of the outside world and the hatred she still feels from some of the other cats. However, a frightening event at Mara’s home forces her into the outside world where she comes to learn and appreciate what it is to be an outside cat. Meanwhile, Southpaw has found himself in dire trouble and is suffering from a life-threatening injury. In desperation, the group leaves him with Mara’s ‘bigfeet’ in hopes that they will take care of him but at the time Mara was already missing from her home. By the time Mara finds the group, no one knows the outcome of Southpaw’s fate. In order to help her friends, Mara needs to find a way to have the other cats accept her and take on the responsibility of being their sender.
This book concludes with the hopeful ending you are expecting but that doesn’t make the rest of the story any less exciting. While not quite as action-packed as the first novel, this novel focuses more on Mara’s inner dynamics and struggles into becoming who she is meant to be. Mara has grown older and is no longer a kitten. With the help of some new friends and enemies of a variety of different species, you follow Mara on her final journey to becoming the sender of Nizamuddin.
If you are looking for an easy read with some very unique and likeable characters, even if you don’t like cats, you will still appreciate this entertaining story.
The Pluviophile Writer 